Film Republic Takes ‘Pie,’ ‘Rosie’

Flurry of deals for young sales agency

MADRID –Xavier Henry-Rashid’s Film Republic, a London-based arthouse film sales agent, has inked world sales rights to two Swiss films, road movie “Cherry Pie,” and Marcel Gisler’s LGBT title “Rosie.”

Both deals were first negotiated at last month’s Locarno Festival, where “Cherry Pie” world premiered out of competition.

Following on Film Republic’s pick-up at the Venice Film Market of Danish feature documentary “Pine Ridge” – in one of the only pacts not only to go down but be announced on the Lido – the deals flurry confirm Film Republic, still a young company, as an active arthouse film sales agent hunting for gems among lesser-known festival titles, working with new – “The Cleaner,” from Peru’s Adrian Saba- rising – Matthew Mishory, on “Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean” – and established talent, such as Gisler.

Helmed by Gisler, whose “Fogi Is A Bastard” competed at Locarno and won the best film Swiss Film Prize in 1999, “Rosie” turns on a 40-year-old gay author (Fabian Kruger). Suffering writer’s block, he returns to his home in eastern-Switzerland to care for his ailing mother (Sibylle Brunner). Vet Zurich production house Cobra Film (“Tulpan”) produces. Kool has acquired German rights. Look Now! will release in Switzerland.

Helmed by Sweden’s Anna Eborn and produced by Katja Adomeit, whose credits include “The Weight of Elephants” and Cannes 2010 Critics’ Week Grand Prix winner “Berik,” “Pine Ridge” screened out of competition at Venice. It depicts the daily lives of young residents at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

“The film is a striking and beautiful account of the strong will of the younger generation in the face of economic and geographical adversity,” said Rashid, Film Republic’s managing director.